Your input is needed on community centre

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THE deadline to comment on plans for a major refurbishment of a community centre is looming.

Residents have until midnight tomorrow to take part in a consultation to make over Emsworth Community Centre.

The centre in North Street is a busy, thriving community hub with more than 50 different groups using it each week.

Hampshire County Council has announced its intention to move the town’s library into part of the building.

The group that runs the centre wants to upgrade the toilets, join the two wings with a porch to create one entrance and set up a community cafe.

Administrator Rachael Bridger said: ‘We’d like a welcoming reception area. At the moment we have an office off the corridor but it’s a bit gloomy.

‘A waiting room will open it out and make it more airy.

‘A community cafe will be a nice place for people to sit and have a chat while their waiting for children in ballet classes. And a place for elderly, isolated people to drop in and have a chat and do an activity.’

A grant of £100,000 has been secured from the county council but the work will only go ahead if the community agrees.